DIMMID , Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique - Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM·MID), is a movement within the Benedictine and Cistercian order aimed to promote interfaith dialogue between monastic communities of different religions. Created in 1977, the movement approaches this aim through a mutual understanding and experience of each other's spirituality .
96-503: The origins of DIMMID go back to post World War II when communism was on the rise and many countries, especially in Africa, were becoming independent from their colonial powers, some of which had introduced and favoured Catholicism, which was now losing governmental support and competed with a reviving Islam. Pope Pius XII was concerned about the situation of the Church and therefore launched
192-504: A Baden Concordat which continued until the spring and summer of 1932. Papal fiat appointed a supporter of Pacelli and his concordat policy, Conrad Gröber , the new Archbishop of Freiburg , and the treaty was signed in August 1932. Others followed: Austria (1933), Germany (1933), Yugoslavia (1935) and Portugal (1940). The Lateran treaties with Italy (1929) were concluded before Pacelli became Secretary of State. Catholicism had become
288-719: A Trappist community near Fez in Morocco that would become the Priory of Our Lady of Atlas (today in Midelt ). All of the murdered monks were French. They were: Dom Christian de Chergé , Brother Luc (born Paul Dochier), Father Christophe (Lebreton) , Brother Michel (Fleury), Father Bruno (born Christian Lemarchand), Father Célestin (Ringeard), and Brother Paul (Favre-Miville). In 2008, La Stampa reported that an anonymous high-ranking Western government official, based in Algeria at
384-493: A few months, on 7 February 1930, Pius XI appointed him Cardinal Secretary of State , responsible for foreign policy and state relations throughout the world. In 1935, Pacelli was named Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church . As Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli signed concordats with a number of countries and states. Immediately on becoming Cardinal Secretary of State, Pacelli and Ludwig Kaas took up negotiations on
480-710: A general call to mission in 1957 in his encyclical Fidei Donum which led to the formation of AIM ( Aid for the Implementation of Monasticism ). The main force behind this imitative was the Dutch Benedictine Cornelius Tholens. Instead of focusing on evangelisation, he stressed the duty of monks and nuns to interact with people in any race or religion. This open approach predated the Second Vatican Council , which in its Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes in 1965 urged
576-566: A guerrilla position, then beheaded after their death to make it appear as though the GIA had killed them. The day after Buchwalter's statement, former GIA leader Abdelhak Layada — who was in prison when the monks were killed — responded by reiterating the claim that the GIA had beheaded the monks after a breakdown of negotiations with the French secret service . The seven monks of the Our Lady of
672-653: A history of ties to the papacy (the " Black Nobility "). His parents were Filippo Pacelli [ it ] (1837–1916) and Virginia (née Graziosi) Pacelli (1844–1920). His grandfather Marcantonio Pacelli [ it ] had been Under-Secretary in the Papal Ministry of Finances and then Secretary of the Interior under Pope Pius IX from 1851 to 1870 and helped found the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano in 1861. His cousin, Ernesto Pacelli ,
768-785: A personal envoy—who did not require Senate confirmation—to the Holy See in December 1939, re-establishing a diplomatic tradition that had been broken since 1870 when the Pope lost temporal power . Pacelli presided as Papal Legate over the International Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires , Argentina on 10–14 October 1934, and in Budapest on 25–30 May 1938. At this time, anti-semitic laws were in
864-571: A pleasing and acceptable sacrifice. This way, the church re-establishes the unity between the Creator and His creatures. The Sacrifice of the Altar, being Christ's own actions, conveys and dispenses divine grace from Christ to the members of the Mystical Body. Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa , a long-time critic of Pius XII's policies during World War II and an opponent of clerical celibacy and
960-725: A relativistic attitude by fellow Benedictines, it has been supported by Catholic authorities since its inception and promotes an ecclesiastic consciousness based on an approach to hospitality that is shaped by the Gospel command to love each other unconditionally . In 2011, the DIMMID launched an online, multi-language journal called Dilatato corde (from Latin "expanded heart"). This bi-annual journal features contributions from spiritual practitioners and scholars of different religious traditions who wish to report, reflect on, and examine this form of interreligious dialogue. A documentary movie about
1056-503: A seasoned Vatican diplomat, had reestablished diplomatic relations with Switzerland and was for twelve years nuncio in Paris . Yet, Maglione did not exercise the influence of his predecessor Pacelli, who as Pope continued his close relation with Giovanni Battista Montini (later Pope Paul VI ) and Domenico Tardini . After the death of Maglione in 1944, Pius left the position open and named Tardini head of its foreign section and Montini head of
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#17327727000151152-656: A serious attempt to understand it and appreciate their reasons for following the monastic way of life. The participants of the 1987 exchange were received at the end of their time by Pope John Paul II in Rome. On proposal of Julian von Duerbeck, O.S.B. , and Br. Wayne Teasdale the DIMMID hosted a dialogue session with the Dalai Lama on "Emptiness and Kenosis" at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993. This led to
1248-470: A setting dedicated to spiritual life was fruitful and allowed for a deeper level of communion. The next "East-West Spiritual Exchange", in which 17 monks and abbots went to Japan upon invitation of Reverend Hirata Seiko, the president of the Institute for Zen studies, proved crucial. The participants recognised that in order for proper exchange and dialogue to occur, they had to enter their spirituality, make
1344-713: A sub-office of the Vatican Secretariat of State . Pietro Gasparri , the recently appointed undersecretary at the Department of Extraordinary Affairs, had underscored his proposal to Pacelli to work in the "Vatican's equivalent of the Foreign office" by highlighting the "necessity of defending the Church from the onslaughts of secularism and liberalism throughout Europe". Pacelli became an apprendista , an apprentice, in Gasparri's department. In January 1901 he
1440-415: A title used exclusively by Italian Popes . He was quoted as saying "I call myself Pius; my whole life was under Popes with this name, but especially as a sign of gratitude towards Pius XI ." On 15 December 1937, during his last consistory, Pius XI strongly hinted to the cardinals that he expected Pacelli to be his successor, saying "He is in your midst." He had previously been quoted as saying: "When today
1536-665: A worrying impression of anti-Semitism is discernible in the "catalogue of epithets describing their physical and moral repulsiveness" and Pacelli's "constant harping on the Jewishness of this party of power usurpers" chimed with the "growing and widespread belief among Germans that the Jews were the instigators of the Bolshevik revolution , their principal aim being the destruction of Christian civilization". Also according to Cornwell, Pacelli informed Gasparri that "the capital of Bavaria,
1632-515: Is often conducted within an academic setting, DIMMID approached this topic from an experiential side. William Skudlarek O.S.B., the Secretary general of DIMMID, characterises their approach to interreligious dialogue as emphasising the experiential knowledge of other spiritual paths and therefore “plunging” into another religious tradition in order to gain this experiential knowledge. Though the DIMMID has been sometimes suspected of syncretism and
1728-685: Is suffering under a harsh Jewish-Russian revolutionary tyranny". According to Sister Pascalina Lehnert, the Nuncio was repeatedly threatened by emissaries of the Bavarian Soviet Republic . Once, in a violation of international law, the Bavarian Revolutionary Government attempted to confiscate the Nunciature's car at gunpoint. Despite their demands, however, Pacelli refused to leave his post. After
1824-628: The Algerian Civil War . They were held for two months, and found dead in late May 1996. The circumstances of their kidnapping and death remain controversial; the Armed Islamic Group ( Groupe Islamique Armé , GIA) claimed responsibility for both, but in 2009, retired General François Buchwalter reported that the monks were killed by the Algerian army. At approximately 1:15 a.m. on 27 March 1996, about twenty armed members of
1920-413: The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) arrived at the monastery of Tibhirine and kidnapped seven monks. Two others, Father Jean-Pierre and Father Amédée, were in separate rooms and escaped the kidnappers' notice. After the kidnappers left, the remaining monks attempted to contact the police, but found that the telephone lines had been cut. As there was a curfew in force, they had to wait until morning to drive to
2016-618: The Basilica of Saint John Lateran , Pacelli was ordained a priest on Easter Sunday , 2 April 1899, alone in the private chapel of a family friend the Vicegerent of Rome, Francesco di Paola Cassetta . Shortly after ordination he began postgraduate studies in canon law at Sant'Apollinaire. He received his first assignment as a curate at Chiesa Nuova . In 1901, he entered the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs ,
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#17327727000152112-757: The Bishop of Passau , in Bavaria: "The history of the Reichskonkordat shows, that the other side lacked the most basic prerequisites to accept minimal freedoms and rights of the Church, without which the Church simply cannot live and operate, formal agreements notwithstanding". Cardinal Pacelli gave a lecture entitled "La Presse et L'Apostolat" at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum on 17 April 1936. Pope Pius XI died on 10 February 1939. Several historians have interpreted
2208-633: The First International Dialogue for Buddhist and Christian Nuns which took place in Kaohsiung , Taiwan, from 14-19 October 2018. 70 monastic women, half Buddhist and half Catholic, participated in the conference under the theme of "Active Contemplation and Contemplation in Action". While the origins of DIMMID lie in a missionary setting, the approach since the 1970s has been one of spiritual exchange. Whereas interreligious dialogue
2304-581: The Middle East and increased the number of Cardinals from the Americas, proportionally lessening the Italian influence. In his second consistory on 12 January 1953, it was expected that his closest co-workers, Msgrs. Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Montini would be elevated and Pius XII informed the assembled cardinals that both of them were originally on the top of his list, but they had turned down
2400-586: The Parione district in the centre of Rome. Soon after the family had moved to Via Vetrina in 1880, he began school at the convent of the French Sisters of Divine Providence in the Piazza Fiammetta. The family worshipped at Chiesa Nuova . Eugenio and the other children made their First Communion at this church and Eugenio served there as an altar boy from 1886. In 1886, he also was sent to
2496-871: The Sistine Chapel on 13 May 1917, the same day as the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal . After his consecration, Eugenio Pacelli left for Bavaria . As there was no nuncio to Prussia or Germany at the time, Pacelli was, for all practical purposes, the nuncio to all of the German Empire . Once in Munich , he conveyed the papal initiative to end the war to German authorities. He met with King Ludwig III on 29 May, and later with Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg , who replied positively to
2592-591: The nunciature in Belgrade , Gerald P. O'Hara as nuncio to Romania , and Aloisius Joseph Muench as nuncio to Germany. For the first time, numerous young Europeans, Asians and "Americans were trained in various congregations and secretariats within the Vatican for eventual service throughout the world". Only twice in his pontificate did Pius XII hold a consistory to create new cardinals , in contrast to Pius XI, who had done so 17 times in as many years. Pius XII chose not to name new cardinals during World War II, and
2688-856: The use of Latin as language of the liturgy , was excommunicated by Pius XII on 2 July 1945. He later established a schismatic group called the " Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church ". Decentralized authority and increased independence of the Uniate Churches were aimed at in the Canon Law /Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC) reform. In its new constitutions, Eastern Patriarchs were made almost independent from Rome (CIC Orientalis, 1957) Eastern marriage law (CIC Orientalis, 1949), civil law (CIC Orientalis, 1950), laws governing religious associations (CIC Orientalis, 1952) property law (CIC Orientalis, 1952) and other laws. These reforms and writings of Pius XII were intended to establish Eastern Orientals as equal parts of
2784-995: The AIM were created. The North American Board for East-West Dialogue (NABEWD), which would later become the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, was created in Petersham, Massachusetts in June 1977 and the Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique was founded in Loppem in Belgium in August that same year. In 1979, the DIMMID helped to organise an "East-West Spiritual Exchange". Japanese Zen monks went to Europe to spend some time in Christian monasteries. Their experience of hospitality in
2880-721: The Allies. His strongest public condemnation of genocide was considered inadequate by the Allied Powers , while the Nazis viewed him as an Allied sympathizer who had dishonoured his policy of Vatican neutrality. During his papacy, the Catholic Church issued the Decree against Communism , declaring that Catholics who profess the atheistic and materialist doctrines of communism are to be excommunicated as apostates from
2976-545: The Bavarian Soviet Republic was defeated and toppled by Freikorps and Reichswehr troops, the Nuncio focused on, according to Lehnert, "alleviating the distress of the postwar period, consoling, supporting all in word and deed". Pacelli was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Germany on 23 June 1920, and – after the completion of a Bavarian Concordat (1924) – his nunciature was moved to Berlin in August 1925. Many of Pacelli's Munich staff stayed with him for
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3072-589: The Bavarian concordat. However, Pacelli obtained less favorable conditions for the church in the Prussian Concordat of 1929, which excluded educational issues. A concordat with the German state of Baden was completed by Pacelli in 1932, after he had moved to Rome. There he also negotiated a concordat with Austria in 1933. A total of 16 concordats and treaties with European states had been concluded in
3168-633: The Cabinet were regular guests. In post-war Germany, in the absence of a nuncio in Moscow, Pacelli worked also on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union . He negotiated food shipments for Russia, where the Catholic Church was persecuted. He met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin , who rejected any kind of religious education, the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without
3264-652: The Cardinal Secretary of State officiated at the baptism of the Infante Juan Carlos ( King of Spain from 1975 to 2014), in a ceremony held at the Palazzo Malta in Rome . The Reichskonkordat was an integral part of four concordats Pacelli concluded on behalf of the Vatican with German States. The state concordats were necessary because the German federalist Weimar constitution gave
3360-687: The Catholic Centre Party , a party he led following Wilhelm Marx 's resignation in October 1928. While in Germany, he travelled to all regions, attended Katholikentag (national gatherings of the faithful), and delivered some 50 sermons and speeches to the German people. In Berlin he lived in the Tiergarten quarter and threw parties for the official and diplomatic elite. Paul von Hindenburg , Gustav Stresemann , and other members of
3456-413: The Catholic Church during the war remain the subject of controversy—including allegations of public silence and inaction concerning the fate of the Jews. Pius employed diplomacy to aid the victims of the Nazis during the war and, through directing the church to provide discreet aid to Jews and others, saved thousands of lives. Pius maintained links to the German resistance , and shared intelligence with
3552-528: The Catholic Church to organize youth groups, make ecclesiastical appointments, run schools, hospitals, and charities, or even conduct religious services. They also ensured that canon law would be recognized within some spheres (e.g., church decrees of nullity in the area of marriage). As the decade began Pacelli wanted the Centre Party in Germany to turn away from the socialists. In the summer of 1931 he clashed with Catholic Chancellor Heinrich Brüning , who frankly told Pacelli he believed that he "misunderstood
3648-418: The Catholic community to acknowledge its solidarity with humankind and its history. In this early time, the AIM helped to sponsor conferences aimed to help monks and nuns in non-Christian countries to better understand the cultural and religious setting better. The conference in Bangkok in 1968 is particularly well-remembered due to accidental death of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton . The direction impetus for
3744-507: The Christian faith. The church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc . Despite all this, Stalin himself was still open to coordinating with Pius XII on the struggle against persecution of the Catholic church. He explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus . His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici Corporis Christi , on
3840-453: The Church as the Mystical Body of Christ ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform ; and Humani generis , in which he instructed theologians to adhere to episcopal teaching and allowed that the human body might have evolved from earlier forms. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946. After he died in 1958, Pope Pius XII was succeeded by John XXIII . In the process toward sainthood, his cause for canonization
3936-433: The DIMMID, "Strangers no more", was filmed in 2015. Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , Italian pronunciation: [euˈdʒɛːnjo maˈriːa dʒuˈzɛppe dʒoˈvanni paˈtʃɛlli] ; 2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his election to
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4032-423: The Father". He aids us likewise through His Church, where He is present indefectibly as the ages run their course: through the Church which He constituted "the pillar of truth" and dispenser of grace, and which by His sacrifice on the cross, He founded, consecrated and confirmed forever. The church has, therefore, according to Pius XII, a common aim with Christ himself, teaching all men the truth, and offering to God
4128-421: The German bishops in their anti-Nazi stand'. This was matched with the discovery of Pacelli's anti-Nazi report, written the following year for President Roosevelt and filed with Ambassador Joseph Kennedy , which declared that the church regarded compromise with the Third Reich as 'out of the question'." Historian Walter Bussmann argued that Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI – who
4224-441: The German states authority in the area of education and culture and thus diminished the authority of the churches in these areas; this diminution of church authority was a primary concern of the Vatican. As Bavarian nuncio, Pacelli negotiated successfully with the Bavarian authorities in 1924 . He expected the concordat with Catholic Bavaria to be the model for the rest of Germany. Prussia showed interest in negotiations only after
4320-427: The Holy See was to establish and sustain the new, unequal, and unprecedented power relationship that had arisen between the papacy and the Church". In 1908, Pacelli served as a Vatican representative on the International Eucharistic Congress , accompanying Rafael Merry del Val to London, where he met Winston Churchill . In 1911, he represented the Holy See at the coronation of George V and Mary . Pacelli became
4416-415: The Italian monopoly on the Roman Curia ; he employed German and Dutch Jesuit advisors, Robert Leiber, Augustin Bea , and Sebastian Tromp . He also supported the elevation of Americans such as Cardinal Francis Spellman from a minor to a major role in the church. After World War II, Pius XII appointed more non-Italians than any Pope before him. American appointees included Joseph P. Hurley as regent of
4512-512: The Nuncio was deeply sorry that the chance had been missed to save what there was to save, it occurs to me over and over again how clearly he foresaw what was to come. Once as he traced the course of the Rhine with his finger on a map, he said sadly, 'No doubt this will be lost as well'. I did not want to believe it, but here, too, he was to be proved right." For the remainder of the Great War, Pacelli concentrated on Benedict's humanitarian efforts especially among Allied POWs in German custody. In
4608-437: The Papal initiative. However, Bethmann Hollweg was forced to resign and the German High Command , hoping for a military victory, delayed the German reply until 20 September. Sister Pascalina Lehnert later recalled that the Nuncio was heartbroken that the Kaiser turned a "deaf ear to all his proposals". She later wrote, "Thinking back today on that time, when we Germans still all believed that our weapons would be victorious and
4704-400: The Pope dies, you'll get another one tomorrow, because the Church continues. It would be a much bigger tragedy, if Cardinal Pacelli dies, because there is only one. I pray every day, God may send another one into one of our seminaries, but as of today, there is only one in this world." After his election, he made Luigi Maglione his successor as Cardinal Secretary of State. Cardinal Maglione,
4800-404: The Secretariat from all over the world and in the same year became a papal chamberlain . In 1905 he received the title domestic prelate . From 1904 until 1916, he assisted Cardinal Pietro Gasparri in his codification of canon law with the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. According to John Cornwell "the text, together with the Anti-Modernist Oath , became the means by which
4896-487: The Secretariat of State, making him undersecretary. During World War I, Pacelli maintained the Vatican's registry of prisoners of war and worked to implement papal relief initiatives. In 1915, he travelled to Vienna to assist Raffaele Scapinelli , nuncio to Vienna, in his negotiations with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria regarding Italy. Pope Benedict XV appointed Pacelli as nuncio to Bavaria on 23 April 1917, consecrating him as titular Archbishop of Sardis in
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#17327727000154992-425: The Serbian Concordat was signed. Serbia 's success in the First Balkan War against Turkey in 1912 had increased the number of Catholics within greater Serbia. At this time Serbia, encouraged by Russia , was challenging Austria-Hungary 's sphere of influence throughout the Balkans . Pius X died on 20 August 1914. His successor Benedict XV named Gasparri as secretary of state and Gasparri took Pacelli with him into
5088-422: The annual meeting of the European DIM in Montserrat in 1995, the year before his murder . In his talk he explained the practice of communion in prayer, thus opening dialogue to other religions beyond Buddhism and Hinduism, such as those with non-monastic traditions such as Islam. In 2007, the European DIM met at the priory of Our Lady of Atlas in Morocco, the continuation of the Thibirine community . In 2011,
5184-405: The appointment of a papal administrator for Danzig and aided the reintegration of German priests expelled from Poland . A Prussian Concordat was signed on 14 June 1929. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , the beginnings of a world economic slump appeared, and the days of the Weimar Republic were numbered. Pacelli was summoned back to Rome at this time—the call coming by telegram when he
5280-508: The church and the Catholic Centre Party . He sent his vice chancellor Franz von Papen , a Catholic nobleman, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat. On behalf of Pacelli, Prelate Ludwig Kaas , the outgoing chairman of the Centre Party, negotiated first drafts of the terms with von Papen. The concordat was finally signed, by Pacelli for the Vatican and von Papen for Germany, on 20 July and ratified on 10 September 1933. Bishop Konrad von Preysing cautioned against compromise with
5376-409: The conclave to choose his successor as facing a choice between a diplomatic or a spiritual candidate, and they view Pacelli's diplomatic experience, especially with Germany, as one of the deciding factors in his election on 2 March 1939, his 63rd birthday, after only one day of deliberation and three ballots. He was the first cardinal Secretary of State to be elected pope since Clement IX in 1667. He
5472-440: The creation of the so-called Gethsameni Encounters , encounters between Theravadin Buddhist monks and members of the DIMMID. The first of which took place at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in July 1996 and was attended among others by the Dalai Lama and bishop Joseph John Gerry , O.S.B.. Until 1994, the DMI was a subcommission of the AIM but as differences between their methods and objectives were becoming more evident, it
5568-513: The existence of the draft only after the death of Pius XI and did not promulgate it as Pope. He did use parts of it in his inaugural encyclical Summi Pontificatus , which he titled "On the Unity of Human Society". His various positions on church and policy issues during his tenure as Cardinal Secretary of State were made public by the Holy See in 1939. Most noteworthy among the 50 speeches is his review of Church-State issues in Budapest in 1938. A year before his papal election, on 26 January 1938,
5664-431: The first international monastic/Shia Muslim dialogue was organised by the DIMMID in Sant’Anselmo , attended among others by Iranian scholar Mohammad Ali Shomali . Since then, four further further meetings took place in Qom/Isfahan (2012), Assisi/Rome (2014), Qom/Mashad (2016) and Karen, Nairobi (2017). The "East-West Spiritual Exchanges" continue up to today and the DIMMID helps also to organise similar exchanges such as
5760-409: The first official denunciation of Nazism made by any major organization and resulted in persecution of the church by the infuriated Nazis who closed all the participating presses and "took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of the Catholic clergy". On 10 June 1941, the Pope commented on the problems of the Reichskonkordat in a letter to
5856-406: The food at the Capranica was to blame. Having received a special dispensation he continued his studies from home and so spent most of his seminary years as an external student. In 1899, he completed his education in Sacred Theology with a doctoral degree awarded on the basis of a short dissertation and an oral examination in Latin . While all other candidates from the Rome diocese were ordained in
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#17327727000155952-444: The foundation came through the letter of Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli , president of what has become the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue , to the Benedictine Abbot Primate Rembert Weakland in 1974. In this letter the cardinal asked the monastic orders to take up a leading role in interreligious dialogue as the presence of monasticism in various religions provided an important bridge for this dialogue. In 1977, two subcommission of
6048-401: The highest level". When he returned to Munich, following Eisner's assassination by Bavarian nationalist Count Anton von Arco auf Valley , he informed Gasparri-using Schioppa's eye-witness testimony of the chaotic scene at the former royal palace as the trio of Max Levien , Eugen Levine , and Tobias Akselrod sought power: "the scene was indescribable [-] the confusion totally chaotic [-] in
6144-462: The internal section. Tardini and Montini continued serving there until 1953, when Pius XII decided to appoint them cardinals, an honor which both turned down. They were then later appointed to be Pro-Secretary with the privilege to wear Episcopal Insignia. Tardini continued to be a close co-worker of the Pope until the death of Pius XII, while Montini became archbishop of Milan , after the death of Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster . Pius XII slowly eroded
6240-454: The legal position of the church. Pacelli, who knew German conditions well, emphasized in particular protection for Catholic associations (§31), freedom for education and Catholic schools, and freedom for publications. As nuncio during the 1920s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between 1930 and 1933 he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but
6336-433: The midst of all this, a gang of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like the rest of them hanging around [-] the boss of this female rabble was Levien's mistress, a young Russian woman, a Jew and a divorcée [-] and it was to her that the nunciature was obliged to pay homage in order to proceed [-] Levien is a young man, also Russian and a Jew. Pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, vulgar, repulsive ..." John Cornwell alleges that
6432-463: The monks on 21 May. The Algerian government announced that their heads had been discovered on May 31; the whereabouts of their bodies is unknown. The funeral Mass for the monks was celebrated in the Catholic Cathedral of Notre-Dame d'Afrique (Our Lady of Africa) in Algiers on Sunday, 2 June 1996. Their remains were buried in the cemetery of the monastery at Tibhirine two days later. The surviving two monks of Tibhirine left Algeria and travelled to
6528-408: The mystical body of Christ, as explained in the encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi . Murder of the monks of Tibhirine Escalation 1994–1996 Massacres and reconciliation 1996–1999 Defeat of the GIA 1999–2002 On the night of 26–27 March 1996, seven monks of the Trappist order from the Our Lady of the Atlas Abbey of Tibhirine near Médéa , Algeria , were kidnapped during
6624-400: The new regime, against those who saw the Nazi persecution of the church as an aberration that Hitler would correct. Between 1933 and 1939, Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the Reichskonkordat . Most notably, early in 1937, Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber , to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat ; this
6720-450: The number of cardinals shrank to 38, with Dennis Joseph Dougherty of Philadelphia being the only living U.S. cardinal. The first occasion on 18 February 1946 yielded the elevation of a record 32 new cardinals, almost half of the College of Cardinals and reaching the canonical limit of 70 cardinals. In the 1946 consistory, Pius XII, while maintaining the maximum size of the College of Cardinals at 70, named cardinals from China , India ,
6816-399: The offer, and were rewarded instead with other promotions. Both Montini and Tardini would become Cardinals shortly after Pius' death; Montini later became Pope Paul VI . The two consistories of 1946 and 1953 brought an end to over five hundred years of Italians constituting a majority of the College of Cardinals . With few exceptions, Italian prelates accepted the changes positively; there
6912-516: The opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim. In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of 1932. Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of
7008-673: The papacy , he served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs , papal nuncio to Germany , and Cardinal Secretary of State , in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with various European and Latin American nations, including the Reichskonkordat treaty with the German Reich . While the Vatican was officially neutral during World War II , the Reichskonkordat and his leadership of
7104-452: The points vital to the Vatican. Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations, until Pius XI ordered them to be discontinued in 1927. Pacelli supported German diplomatic activity aimed at rejection of punitive measures from victorious former enemies. He blocked French attempts for an ecclesiastical separation of the Saar region , supported
7200-588: The police station in Médéa . On 18 April, the GIA's communiqué no. 43 announced that they would release the monks in exchange for Abdelhak Layada , a former GIA leader who had been arrested three years earlier. On 30 April, a tape with the voices of the kidnapped monks, recorded on 20 April, was delivered to the French Embassy in Algiers . On 23 May, the GIA's communiqué no. 44 reported that they had executed
7296-709: The political situation in Germany and the real character of the Nazis". Following Brüning's resignation in May 1932 Pacelli, like the new Catholic chancellor Franz von Papen , wondered if the Centre Party should look to the Right for a coalition, "that would correspond to their principles". He made many diplomatic visits throughout Europe and the Americas, including an extensive visit to the United States in 1936 where he met President Franklin D. Roosevelt , who appointed
7392-524: The pride of Lucifer". and as "bearers of a new faith and a new Evangile" who were attempting to create "a mendacious antimony between faithfulness to the Church and the Fatherland". Two years later at Notre Dame de Paris he named Germany as "that noble and powerful nation whom bad shepherds would lead astray into an ideology of race". Pacelli was made a Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio on 16 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and within
7488-754: The private school of Professor Giuseppe Marchi, close to the Piazza Venezia . In 1891 Pacelli's father sent Eugenio to the Ennio Quirino Visconti Liceo Ginnasio , a state school situated in what had been the Collegio Romano , the premier Jesuit university in Rome. In 1894, aged 18, Pacelli began his theology studies at Rome's oldest seminary, the Almo Collegio Capranica , and in November of
7584-664: The process of being formulated in Hungary . Pacelli made reference to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today". This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed in Nostra aetate issued during the Second Vatican Council . According to Joseph Bottum , Pacelli in 1937 "warned A. W. Klieforth, that Hitler was 'an untrustworthy scoundrel and fundamentally wicked person', to quote Klieforth, who also wrote that Pacelli 'did not believe Hitler capable of moderation, and ... fully supported
7680-537: The rest of his life, including his advisor Robert Leiber and Sister Pascalina Lehnert—housekeeper, cook, friend, and adviser for 41 years. In Berlin, Pacelli was Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and active in diplomatic and many social activities. He was aided by the German priest Ludwig Kaas , who was known for his expertise in Church-state relations and was a full-time politician, politically active in
7776-815: The same year, registered to take a philosophy course at the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University and theology at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare . He was also enrolled at the State University, La Sapienza where he studied modern languages and history. At the end of the first academic year however, in the summer of 1895, he dropped out of both the Capranica and the Gregorian University. According to his sister Elisabetta,
7872-521: The sole recognized religion; the powerful democratic Catholic Popular Party , in many ways similar to the Centre Party in Germany, had been disbanded, and in place of political Catholicism the Holy See encouraged Catholic Action . It was permitted only so long as it developed "its activity outside every political party and in direct dependence upon the Church hierarchy for the dissemination and implementation of Catholic principles". Such concordats allowed
7968-484: The ten-year period 1922–1932. The Reichskonkordat , signed on 20 July 1933, between Germany and the Holy See, while thus a part of an overall Vatican policy, was controversial from its beginning. It remains the most important of Pacelli's concordats. It is debated, not because of its content, which is still valid today, but because of its timing. A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state, because he had hoped to strengthen
8064-488: The time of the murders, had told them that the kidnapping was orchestrated by a DRS -infiltrated GIA group, but that the monks had been killed accidentally by an Algerian military helicopter which attacked the camp where they were being held captive. In July 2009, the retired French general François Buchwalter, who was military attaché in Algeria at the time, testified to a judge that the monks had been accidentally killed by an Algerian government helicopter during an attack on
8160-525: The under-secretary in 1911, adjunct-secretary in 1912 (a position he received under Pope Pius X and retained under Pope Benedict XV ), and secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in February 1914. On 24 June 1914, just four days before Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo , Pacelli, together with Cardinal Merry del Val, represented the Vatican when
8256-630: The upheaval following the Armistice, a disconcerted Pacelli sought Benedict XV's permission to leave Munich, where Kurt Eisner had formed the Free State of Bavaria , and he left for a while to Rorschach , and a tranquil Swiss sanatorium run by nuns. Schioppa, the uditore , was left in Munich. "His recovery began with a 'rapport ' " with the 24-year-old Sister Pascalina Lehnert – she would soon be transferred to Munich when Pacelli "pulled strings at
8352-691: Was a key financial advisor to Pope Leo XIII ; his father, Filippo Pacelli, a Franciscan tertiary , was the dean of the Roman Rota ; and his brother, Francesco Pacelli , became a lay canon lawyer and the legal advisor to Pope Pius XI , in which role he negotiated the Lateran Treaty in 1929 with Benito Mussolini , bringing an end to the Roman Question . Together with his brother Francesco (1872–1935) and his two sisters, Giuseppina (1874–1955) and Elisabetta (1880–1970), he grew up in
8448-528: Was also chosen, by Pope Leo XIII himself, according to an official account, to deliver condolences on behalf of the Vatican to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom after the death of Queen Victoria . By 1904 Pacelli received his doctorate. The theme of his thesis was the nature of concordats and the function of canon law when a concordat falls into abeyance. Promoted to the position of minutante , he prepared digests of reports that had been sent to
8544-978: Was also formally the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem , prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office , prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation . There was however a Cardinal-Secretary to run these bodies on a day-to-day basis. Pacelli took the same papal name as his predecessor,
8640-1002: Was nearing death at the time —from condemning the Kristallnacht in November 1938, when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin. The draft encyclical Humani generis unitas ("On the Unity of the Human Race") was ready in September 1938 but, according to those responsible for an edition of the document and other sources, it was not forwarded to the Holy See by the Jesuit General Wlodimir Ledóchowski . The draft encyclical contained an open and clear condemnation of colonialism , racial persecution and antisemitism . Historians Passelecq and Suchecky have argued that Pacelli learned about
8736-464: Was no protest movement or open opposition to the internationalization efforts. In his encyclical Mediator Dei , Pius XII links liturgy with the last will of Jesus Christ . But it is His will, that the worship He instituted and practised during His life on earth shall continue ever afterwards without intermission. For He has not left mankind an orphan. He still offers us the support of His powerful, unfailing intercession, acting as our "advocate with
8832-423: Was one of only two men known to have served as Camerlengo immediately prior to being elected as pope (the other being Pope Leo XIII ). According to rumours, he asked for another ballot to be taken to ensure the validity of his election. After his election was indeed confirmed, he chose the name Pius XII in honour of his immediate predecessor. His coronation took place on 12 March 1939. Upon being elected pope he
8928-471: Was opened on 18 November 1965 by Paul VI during the final session of the Second Vatican Council . He was made a Servant of God by John Paul II in 1990 and Benedict XVI declared Pius XII Venerable on 19 December 2009. Pacelli remains the last pope to take the regnal name of Pius to the present day. Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on the second day of Lent, 2 March 1876, in Rome into an upper class family of intense Catholic piety with
9024-464: Was resting at his favourite retreat, the Rorschach convent sanatorium. He left Berlin on 10 December 1929. David G. Dalin wrote "of the forty-four speeches Pacelli gave in Germany as papal nuncio between 1917 and 1929, forty denounced some aspect of the emerging Nazi ideology". In 1935 he wrote a letter to Karl Joseph Schulte , the archbishop of Cologne, describing the Nazis as "false prophets with
9120-541: Was set up by Abbot Primate Jerome Theisen as an independent Secretariat, though always in liaison with the AIM. This secretariat would serve not only the Benedictine Confederation but also the two branches of the Cistercian order and to stress its international character, it was given both an English and French name. Fr. Christian de Chergé , prior of the monastery Our Lady of Atlas , came to
9216-450: Was to become Pius XI's 1937 encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge . The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Catholic Church documents. Secretly distributed by an army of motorcyclists and read from every German Catholic Church pulpit on Palm Sunday , it condemned the paganism of the Nazi ideology. Pius XI credited its creation and writing to Pacelli. It was
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